Odd Teacher
by snowmankittycat
Summary: Just who is John Tyler? Is he a physics teacher, or something else entirely? Some of his students would like to know. Metacrisis Doctor in Pete's World.
1. Chapter 1

"Alrighty class, settle down! We have a lot of fun content to cover today!"

A collective grown resounded in the class. Physics wasn't exactly what the students would call 'fun,' but at least the teacher made class less than boring. The teacher, a certain Doctor John Tyler, had only started teaching at the school this year, and had obvious trouble at the beginning, adjusting to a first teaching job. He quickly caught on, however, and eventually propelled his students to the highest grade holders in the school. No one really knew much about the genius though, apart from his adeptness as an educator. His personal life was a mystery to even the staff, and he occasionally had to leave his classes abruptly for unknown reasons, only to return the next day without ample explanation. The students couldn't help but feel curious about his whereabouts and personal life, but none hadn't gotten too nosy about it. A few had tried inquiring about where he went when he had to leave class the few times in the past, but most often, they received vague answers, like "family commitments" and other rubbish that anyone could tell was untrue. But, no one pressed him, as he really didn't do anything too harmful in class, and always managed to keep his students on the curriculum's schedule. Most of the students didn't care too much, so class went on.

In actuality, Doctor John Tyler's life did not portray that of a slightly but not overly off kilter, mundane school teacher. After being dropped off at Bad Wolf Bay with Rose by the Time Lord Doctor, the Metacrisis one and Rose had started a new life in the parallel universe. A few months after their arrival, John had proposed, and the pair happily married soon after. John had taken Rose's name to show his appreciation of being in her life, instead of her taking the false name of Smith. Most who didn't know who, or what, he actually was used this new false name, but while in private, Rose and her family still often referred to him as the Doctor.

Soon into their new lives, the Tylers discovered that they wanted to settle down. They hadn't really needed to get jobs of their own, seeing as Rose's father was affluent enough to support the pair easily enough, but the pair wanted to have their own independent lives. Plus, they needed something to fill up their time while waiting for their TARDIS to grow.

So, Rose took up a job at this universe's Torchwood. Her time with the Doctor garnered her experience that made her a vital part of this universe's organization. At first she wanted her husband to join her too, but he found this Torchwood, although better than the other one, was still not his cup of tea. Although, when times became rough, he often collaborated with the organization as a consultant, getting them out of trouble when a more experienced hand was needed. Most often though, this Earth faced significantly fewer outsider encounters that the other universe.

Still needing a time waster, he found an opportunity at a school near the Tyler mansion that needed some teachers for the upcoming school year. Seeing as his intellect far surpassed most humans in the science field, he found that the position of science teacher was not too arduous. In fact, it seemed as though he had to dumb down his lessons to fit the textbook curriculum, or even teach some concepts that weren't exactly true, although the humans wouldn't know that for a few hundred years. Rose expected that he would become immensely bored quickly, as the repetition of day to day class seemed nothing like the ambiguity of space and time travel, and some times, that was the case, but soon, the Doctor found comfort in the knowledge that he didn't need to worry about surviving some random alien genocide, or an invasion, or any other type of extraterrestrial encounter. However, he still felt that itch in the back of his head, the itch that made him want to always run and find trouble, and he knew that by the end of the school year, a month away, he and Rose would need to find something really exciting to do, or at the very least, find a way of speeding up the TARDIS II's growth.

His students knew none of this though. They knew naught about about his partly alien biology, or his out of class commitments, or his past. To them, he was simply some odd teacher. He spoke more excitedly, and sometime odd sentences came spewing out of his mouth at a hundred miles a minute. He often got his verb tenses wrong, but most students dismissed it as the characteristics of a savant. A few were curious about him, but not enough to want to investigate, at least, until a certain incident one Friday afternoon.

It passed off as any normal day, at first. Doctor Tyler told the students what textbook page to open to, wrote down some equations on the board, went off on a random tangent about how he had met the greatest mathematicians in Earth's history at a party once a couple thousand years ago, and how he had accidentally invented the Pythagorean Theorem a few years ahead of schedule, until he seemed to catch himself and began actually teaching again.

"Where was I? Oh right! If you look at-"

A ringtone interrupted his lecture. Some jingle, sounding suspiciously like dooo-weee-doooo, dooo dooo, permeated the near silence of the classroom. A blush appeared on the Doctor's face as he clumsily rummaged through the untidy piles of junk on his desk, searching for the mobile and muttering a quick apology.

The Doctor often received phone calls during class. Most came from Torchwood. An experiment had gone wrong, and only the Doctor's knowledge could keep it from blowing up half of London. Or, even sometimes, there was an alien running rampant on the streets with unknown abilities that the Doctor had luckily experienced in the past. Typical. Most of the time, the Doctor took the call to the hallway outside, cleared up the issue, and was back in ten minutes or less. Occasionally, he left promptly when school ended, heading straight to Torchwood HQ to take care of any loose strings. Seldom did he show any panic in class. He mostly relied on the information he gave the Torchwood agents as sufficient for them to take care of the problem. Usually he was right.

The Doctor finally found his phone, resting underneath two textbook that slammed on the floor after he brushed them off his desk. He didn't even flinch, a sheepish grin pasted on his face.

"Now, who would be calling me at this hour? Sorry, class, I have to take this. Important business!"

He tapped the screen and set the phone to his ear.

"Hello, Rose! What sort of trouble have they gotten into now? I hope the anti-defribrilicator isn't acting up again."

Ignoring the random technobabble, as per usual, the name 'Rose' raised a few tired heads. Most of the students recognized the name as belonging to someone who called Dr. Tyler quite often. Some guessed correctly in declaring their marital relationship, others thought they were odd friends (as if teachers had lives outside of school), and a few of the more conspiratorial students thought of her as some secret mob boss calling in on debts every few months. Few cared enough to actually find out.

The students didn't fidget. They had quickly learned the routine. Dr. Tyler would quickly tell the woman on the phone how to fix whatever she needed, or he would go into the hallway and be back in five or so minutes. Standard procedure. He would be back to normal with a renowned grin any minute now, blathering on once more. What they didn't expect was for his face to suddenly pale. A long period of silence followed, with him simply standing at the front of the classroom, listening to the person on the other end of the line go on and on.

"I-I see," he stuttered finally. "Of course. I'll be there immediately. Hold on."

He closed his mobile slowly, his unfocused eyes snapping back to attention once more, as if learning that he indeed still had a class. With a start and a fleeting apologetic glance, he bounded out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Eyes flew open and mouths fell to the floor. Dr. Tyler had left class in a hurry before, but not before at least making a quick call down to the front desk so they could send someone down to watch the students for the remainder of the period. Plus, in the majority of those times, the teacher had only looked slightly worried, if worried at all. Never had he left so quickly, and with so much tension on his face.

Eventually, the class collected their bearings, and a low murmur began as their school work was forgotten. A few of the more devilish students stood up and quickly exited the classroom, free at last, but the majority stayed behind. The first few minutes were spent discussing Dr. Tyler's unexpected reaction to the phone call, but eventually the conversations regressed into more average, everyday discussions. That is, for all but a pair of teens who sat near the front of the classroom, to themselves.

The female of the pair sat at her desk, her schoolwork untouched in favor of pondering over the current whereabouts of their educator. Her forehead was furrowed and she stared intently at door, going over her teacher's strange behavior over and over in her head. While most of the class dismissed their teacher's actions quickly, she always found interest in his abnormalities, the current affair only being one of many that she had taken notice of.

Her friend, a boy of slighter height than her, sat in the desk behind her, focusing intently on not the door, but the worksheet Dr. Tyler had handed out moments before the whole ideal. He too furrowed his brow, but not over what held her attention. Standing up, he set his paper on her desk.

"Hey, did you figure out this part? I wasn't sure what to do once I..." He trailed off, noticing her attention was focused elsewhere. He turned to look at the door, her eyes still locked on it intently in thought. With a sigh, he turned back to her.

"You're not seriously going on about that again, are you? He's just a teacher."

The girl finally took her eyes off the door, staring with the same intensity at her counterpart. He recoiled a bit at her hard stare, but met her eyes.

"Don't you think it's a bit weird how he never gets fired, even after all the times he has randomly left class?"

The boy rolled his eyes. Not this, again.

"Come on. It's probably just family problems. Maybe he has a sick aunt he has to go visit, or something."

She looked at him incredulously. "Really? Then why does he usually get so gleeful when he has to leave? Not today, I mean, which was weird, but usually it's like he's going on to do something fun."

"Maybe he doesn't like his aunt?"

She glared at him and he shrugged sheepishly. "I'm just saying, why won't administration notice? He isn't the most reliable teacher in the world."

The boy looked taken aback. "So you want them to fire him?"

She stood up to smack him on the arm. "No, of course not, stupid! He's a great teacher. I just wish I could figure out where he runs off to all the time. And who is this 'Rose' lady who keeps calling him?"

"Well, maybe it's his aunt-"

"It's not his aunt!" She raised her voice annoyed. With a huff, she lowered her voice so only he, leaning in, could hear. With a superfluous glance, as no one was really paying them any attention anyway, she murmured, "I think he's a spy. And that Rose lady keeps calling him on missions."

The boy deadpanned. "A spy."

"Yes."

"A spy?"

"Yes! Aren't you listening?" She smacked him on the arm again, and he began to dejectedly rub the sore spot. "People are always calling him during class, and he runs off like he has was ordered somewhere. Plus, he is never laid off for it. He must have someone high up who keeps him from losing his job. Or maybe it isn't even a real job! Maybe, this is just some undercover position he's in while he's actually tracking down some enemy spy who is a threat to national security, or maybe he-"

At this moment, the boy placed his hand flat on her mouth, effectively silencing her. She slapped his hand away, but didn't continue, instead choosing to narrow her eyes at him as he began, more calmly.

"Think about it. There is no way he could be a spy. People like that don't really exist. And if they did, would they really be hiding in a school where all the kids could get in the way?"

The fire in the girls eyes began to dim as his words of logic seeped through, and his hands on her arms became a grounding influence.

"He's just a normal bloke who has family issues. I don't know. But there is no way he could be a spy. You need to just stop obsessing and forget about it." He smiled warmly at her, and she sighed.

"I guess you might be right." She gave a small smile back, and the two separated. As if on cue, the final bell rang and most of the other students quickly filed out of class. The pair stood for a moment longer, before starting to clean up their items. Backpacks on, they began to walk toward the door, until all of a sudden, the girl stopped in front of his desk. She glanced around the classroom. Only a single soul, another female who was clearing the floor of an exploded pencil bag, remained besides her and her partner. All of a sudden, an idea had come to her. Noticing he wasn't being followed, the boy glanced back at her. His eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh no. I know that look. That's the 'I have a horrible idea that will get us both in trouble look.' Please tell me that isn't that look."

A smug smile slowly took form on the girl's face. "This is totally that look."

A groan, and then, "Why can't we just go home? The bus is leaving soon, and if we miss it, we'll have to walk, and you know how long that is."

Instead of replying, the girl whipped her phone out of her back pocket, and after about a minute of lightning thumbs on the keyboard, placed her phone back.

"What was that?" The boy stared at where the phone had disappeared to as if the device would suddenly sprout wings and fly. "What did you just send?"

The girl smirked at him. "I just sent a text to both our mums saying we would be at each other's homes for the night."

"Okay... Why?" Slowly, a nagging idea of where this was going began to take root in the boy's mind, but whether it was stubbornness or just lack of clues, the idea didn't come full circle.

"Because," Again with the smirk, "we are staying here tonight, and going through Dr. Tyler's stuff."

"What?" Boy's eyes widened. "But I thought- no! We are not going through his stuff just because you think he is a spy. I'm pretty sure that's illegal!"

She waved her hand at the unkempt pile of books and paper on his desk. "Not when he just leaves all his stuff here, unlocked and free for anyone to look at."

He just stared at her, mouth agape, shrilly adding, "No, I'm pretty sure it's still illegal!"

With a sigh, she placed her hands on her hips. She gave a quick glance at the other student in the room, who was still cleaning up her pencils, but who didn't appear to be listening in, and she continued, in a quieter voice, "When have we ever gotten a chance like this before, and when will we ever again? He usually has a sub come in to look after us, and they always lock the room and leave it after class ends. But he left so abruptly this time that we can actually stay and look around. He probably has loads of secrets hidden somewhere."

The boy was shaking his head. "We can't. It's just wrong."

"No it's not. It's just simple investigation. Plus, what if we don't find anything? Okay, he's not a spy. Whoopdi-doo, you were right, we can go home, and I'll forget all about this. Don't you at least want to say you told me so?" She looked at him, one eyebrow raised in challenge. He shuffled his feet, a look of conflict on his face, before coming to a resolution.

"Fine. But I'm only staying with you to make sure you don't get in any trouble!"

She rolled her eyes. "Sure thing, stupid face."

"Staying? Staying where?"

The girl jumped, before whirling around to make eye contact with the other girl in the room. "Nowhere," she spoke quickly.

The second girl, a brunette with warm eyes, looked between the two, a sincere smile on her face. "Really? Because it looks to me like you two are staying here overnight."

The original duo's eyes widened. Had they really been speaking that loudly?

"I overheard you two talking about Dr. Tyler before class ended. It is a bit weird how he disappears, isn't it?"

The pair nodded, suspicious and stunned. The non-brunette of the room came out of her reverie first.

"You can't tell anyone that we're staying here. All we want to do is find out what's up with Dr. Tyler, and then we'll leave. But you will not keep us from doing that. You can't tell anyone we were here." The non-brunette's eyes blazed with ferocity, daring anyone to disagree with her.

The brunette looked mischievously between the pair, letting out a light laugh. "Of course not. Because I want to find out about him too. The problem is, I can't stay here. I have piano lessons that I have to attend. But that doesn't mean I can't still know what he is doing."

The boy's eyes widened, and he sputtered out, "So you aren't going to tell anyone?"

She looked at him, laughter in her eyes. "Of course not!" She walked past them, but stopped under the doorway. She whirled around again. Raising an eyebrow, she added, "That is, as long as you tell me what you find out about him."

With another whirl, the brunette was gone, her footsteps echoing in the empty hallway. The non-brunette smirked as her footsteps faded. "I like her."

The boy looked at her with surprise. "Really? She kind of reminds me of you."

"Is that a compliment, or-"

"Yes!" He squeaked before she could turn on him.

Rubbing her hands together, she beamed again, something that seemed to be happening quite often in her normally boring life. She pranced to the door and shut it so only a crack remained open, the light of the room spilling out into the now dim hallway.

"All right," she began. "Let's find out who Dr. Tyler really is."

The boy pulled his hand over his face, rubbing his eyes. "I can't believe I'm really doing this."

"Oh, grow up, wouldja?"

He turned to her, anxious, but with a tiny smile on his face. Maybe this wouldn't go wrong after all. He went to stand next to her, staring at the mound of paper on Dr. Tyler's desk just waiting to be rifled through.

With one last sigh, he murmured, "Amy Pond, you are going to be the death of me."


	2. Chapter 2

"Ugh, there's nothing here!"

Amy threw another pile of papers down, which the boy, Rory quickly went to recover and place back to their original position on the desk.

"Like I said. He's not a spy." He repeated.

After shuffling through the assignments, teacher's plans, and random car wash flyers for two hours, Amy Pond was getting frustrated. There were no signs of espionage, nothing special, no secrets. There were absolutely no clues to say that he was anything but a normal school teacher. And it made Amy's head swim.

"But I was so sure..." she repeated dejectedly.

"Do I get to say I told you so yet?"

With a sharp glare, Rory fell silent.

She half-heartedly shoved a textbook off the corner of the desk, and with a slam, papers flew in a flurry. Rory gave another grunt of agitation before crouching down to retrieve the offending papers. Amy watched her friend with annoyance, before staring at the desk. With a start she shoved another textbook off, which landed next to Rory, before shuffling through some more papers. They were tests for next week, by the looks of it. The object of her attention, however, was a laptop, previously buried beneath the paper fallout.

"He has a laptop," she announced, some energy returned to her voice as she sat down next to Rory, the laptop in her lap. She flipped the top up and grinned.

Rory looked up, the paper fallout temporarily forgotten, and replied, "What? Oh, yeah. I found that about an hour ago. But you need a password, so-"

"You found it an hour ago? Why didn't you tell me?"

Rory looked taken aback. "I couldn't unlock it, so I just put it back."

She glared at him, before turning back to the screen. The blank space where the pass code went blinked in anticipation. Her eyebrows came together in thought, before she brought her fingers down to type four characters. In an instant, the loading screen appeared, and Amy leaned back in smug satisfaction.

"How did you do that?" A flustered Rory uttered.

"His password was 'Rose,'" she shrugged.

"How did you know his password would be that?"

"Well, it's the only name I've heard him utter beside his own, besides someone in the school. I'm surprised, I didn't think it would be that simple," she shrugged again before going to pull up his documents. Unbeknownst to her, Rory was off to the side, mouthing 'simple,' before speaking again.

"Maybe because he wouldn't expect anyone to go through his computer files," he grumbled.

"Here we go!" she ignored him, "Look at these files. These look like the ones he uses to teach."

She pointed to a folder titled "Physics' before clicking on it. Various documents with names like 'Lesson Plan' and 'Test 4' popped on the screen.

"There we go, he's an actual teacher. Can we go now?" Rory insisted, tugging on her sleeve.

She shrugged him off, and then clicked the back button. The cursor quickly flew over the other folders, with names like 'Wedding,' 'Why Sundays are Boring,' and 'Knitting.' It settled on one folder at the bottom of the list, in all caps, labeled TORCHWOOD.

"Torchwood?" Rory stated. "What does that mean? Does he go camping often?"

"I don't think so." Amy muttered determinedly. She clicked on the mystery folder, and another password request came up.

"Now, why would a perfectly normal, non-spy teacher have password protection on a folder about fire wood on his computer?" Amy goaded. "Yeah, he sounds like a normal civilian to me."

She quickly typed in 'Rose' again, and the folder promptly opened.

"He certainly doesn't have good protection," she murmured offhandedly.

A collection of documents, all with dates in their names, followed. The first date started about three years prior, and continued consistently after, with at least one document per each of the following months, all the way to the current month.

Amy placed a well manicured fingernail on the latest date. "That was a week ago," she stated firmly. "Didn't he have a phone call that day?"

Rory shrugged. "Maybe?"

She pointed at the previous date. "What about that? He had a phone call then too. I remember, because it was during our exam."

Rory helplessly stumbled over his words. "Maybe it was another day that week? I mean, it can't have been the same day?"

Amy glared at him before pulling her backpack over from its abandoned position on the floor. She pulled out a daily planner before flipping through the pages.

"There," she stated, placing her finger on the date. In cursive scrawl, Amy had written: _Dr. Tyler- another phone call_. The date matched the date on the document of a week ago. She flipped back a few pages. A similar message went on the second date, next to the word _Exam_.

"I started cataloguing whenever he got a phone call or had to leave back in November."

Rory stared at her. "You've been cataloguing him this whole time?"

"Yep. Seriously, Rory, I can't be the only one who thought he was weird. Only, I spent this whole time trying to find out the puzzle."

"Right, Amy Pond, the girl who waited to find out her teacher is a spy."

"So you agree with me now?" She raised a brow.

"What? No, I don't. This doesn't prove anything. For all we know, he could just be recording days that he missed class time."

"Then why does he have individual, specialized document for every one of them?" With a flourish, she clicked the latest file, the one from a week ago.

It opened up. The top line read 'Torchwood Case Data.' Beneath that, it read, 'Disturbance #472' in bold letters above the date.

"It's talking about a case. Don't spies have cases?" Amy's mouth ran off excitedly.

"I thought they had missions," Rory replied, staring at the screen. Amy turned back to the screen as well, and began reading off.

_Threat: Slitheen Family_

_Events:_ _Torchwood got a friendly meeting with the Slitheen today. Unfortunately, they exist in Pete's World, too._

Amy stopped. "There's that Torchwood again. Maybe it's the name for the agency he works for, like a secret branch of MI6. But what is 'Pete's World?'"

Rory kept silent and Amy continued.

_It turns out they had infiltrated some of the head officers in the weapons department._

"Weapons department?" Amy repeated furiously. "What teacher goes around talking about a weapons department?"

Rory stayed silent once more. As strange as it was, Amy was looking more and more correct.

_I told the team how to get rid of them._

Amy's eyes widened. "'Get rid of them?' He told them how to kill a family who had infiltrated a top secret weapons department of a secret spy agency. Oh my god, Rory, he is totally a spy!"

"Well, we don't know if that is what he meant, exactly," Rory's weak argument fell on deaf ears, and he didn't really believe it himself. He felt frozen with shock. One of Amy's zany theories was actually looking correct. How many more would turn out to be right? He shuddered back to reality.

"Look at it, Rory! What more proof do you need?"

She turned back to the screen to begin reading more, but the slam of a door from the hallway halted them. Two pair of footsteps followed, getting gradually louder and louder.

"That's him!" Rory shrieked, before covering his own mouth with both hands to shush himself. He stared hopelessly at the mess the desk had become (apparently it was actually possible to make it look even messier than before), before starting a futile attempt at, if not at least restoring the desk to its prior condition, making sure none of the paper fallout was conspicuously on the floor.

Amy on the other hand rushed to the door. She peered through the crack to witness Dr. Tyler, or in her mind, Agent Tyler, and another unknown man walking down the hallway towards the classroom.

At least the light wasn't on, she thought. The pair had turned it off earlier in favor of not drawing attention to themselves. But now, they were faced with a dilemma. They couldn't quickly bolt out of the classroom. The adults in the corridor would see them, and likely give chase. And with Dr. Tyler's new status as a suspected agent, Amy wasn't willing to take the risk.

Clutching the closed laptop to her chest like a lifeline, Amy turned back to look at Rory, who was fumbling with the last few papers.

"We need to hide!" she whispered furiously at him.

"What? How?" Rory gaped.

"He's coming, and we can't leave without him seeing us!"

The pair's eyes frantically began searching the room, looking for any reprieve. Rory's eyes landed on a cabinet that rested along the wall opposite the door. Bounding toward it, he gestured to Amy. Pulling the door open, he whispered, "In here!"

The pair rushed in and closed the doors, but left a small crack that allowed them an adequate view of the front of the room. It was a bit cramped, but the pair didn't notice. Silence fell and all they could hear was their own rapid breathing, and the footsteps and voices of the two men in the corridor. Rory rubbed his hand over his sweaty forehead, and his eyes fell on Amy's chest.

She still had the laptop. He simply gawked at her. Their eyes met.

"Why do you still have that?" He whisper-shouted.

She looked at him defensively, but didn't have an answer. In the furor, she had forgotten she was holding it.

"Put it back!"

Eyes wide in terror, she replied, "No!"

"Amy, just do it, before he-"

Too late, the door to the class room flew open, and light filled the room. The two men-Dr. Tyler and the unknown-walked in, the unknown man surveyed the room, scanning it as if he hadn't been in a classroom for a long time.

"I just need to get my laptop, and we'll be on our way," Dr. Tyler grinned at the other man, who gave an equally manic grin back, before he began rooting through his own stuff in search of the device.

Rory looked pointedly at Amy, who gave a helpless shrug. Dr. Tyler wouldn't be finding his laptop any time soon.

"Funny," Dr. Tyler's head tilted to the side. "I distinctly remember putting my laptop here…"

Amy and Rory's eyes widened again.

"Then again, I don't remember marrying Queen Elizabeth I, but that happened, er, will happen," Dr. Tyler continued. "_Well,_ not to me."

He winked at the other man, who gave another wide beam. While Amy and Rory were hyperventilating, Amy noted the new man's odd appearance. A long purple waste coat with matching bow tie and braces adorned the man, and floppy brown hair sat on his head.

The purple man chuckled. "I still don't remember it myself. But you know, time and all that."

Dr. Tyler gave a small laugh at that apparent inside joke, but his eyes betrayed a bit more pain, and longing too. After another thirty seconds, he threw his hands up, and they went through his spiky hair as he paced back and forth.

"I don't know where it went! It was right here. I'm one hundred percent certain that I didn't bring it with me when going to Torchwood HQ. _Well_, maybe not a hundred percent, more like eighty-nine and a half, but you understand. If someone has their hands on it…" He trailed off.

"Then we have a problem," the purple man finished grimly.

"Yes. The plans for the TARDIS II are on it, along with all of my Torchwood data. I would hate if anyone got a hold of it. Then again, perhaps I should have gotten better security on it when Rose asked," Dr. Tyler placed a hand on his chin, contemplating his dilemma.

Indicating the unknown word in his speech, Rory mouthed, 'weapon?' and Amy shrugged.

"You know, _Doctor_," the purple man began again after a moment. Laughter was evident in his eyes that Rory and Amy hoped didn't hide anything malicious. "You seem to have done well for yourself. Although, I never would have expected you to become a teacher. It's far too boring for me. And you, I suppose. Too many things happen in a set order."

Dr. Tyler shrugged. "It keeps me busy. And you don't have to call me Doctor. I go by John now, at least in public. Very few people know me as the Doctor anymore."

The purple man leaned against a desk, arms crossed. "All right then, _John_," he uttered the name as if it was some inside joke, and Dr. Tyler raised a brow at him.

Amy and Rory stared wide-eyed at each other.

"'Doctor' must be his code name when he's on missions," Amy whispered. "And the other man knows it."

Rory whispered almost imperceptivity, pointing to the purple man. "He's a spy too!" He reached to put his grip on the laptop. "We have to give it back to them!"

Amy stared right back. "We'll probably get killed! We'll just wait until they leave and then put it back."

"But-"

"No!" Amy whispered, a little too loudly.

"Did you hear that?" The purple man spoke. He had been examining an apple on Dr. Tyler's desk with disgust, but looked up when he heard something from the cabinet. "It sounded like voices."

He began slowly making his way to the cabinet. Dr. Tyler's hunt for the laptop momentarily halted, and he too eyed to cabinet wearily. The purple man reached a hand out, and rested it on the handle, but didn't open it. He looked back to Dr. Tyler with an excited spark in his eyes.

"Dr. Tyler!" A voice suddenly exclaimed in the doorway. The purple man jumped back, fumbling with something in his pocket before he pulled out what looked like a cross between a pen and a torch, pointing at the girl in the doorway.

Amy and Rory gave a relieved sigh, before dual looks of horror spread across their faces.

'What is she doing back here?' Rory mouthed, quieter.

Amy shook her head. It was the girl who had stopped to talk to them earlier. Apparently her piano lessons had finished, and she had come back to help with the search. She was a bit late, unfortunately.

'What will they do to her?' Amy mouthed worriedly. The other man was obviously some secret agent like Dr. Tyler. Two grown men against an unsuspecting teenager? Even if they weren't agents, any girl standing alone with them should have been worried.

But she didn't know, Amy realized. She was nervous, obviously, but she didn't know. Whipping her mobile out, Amy rapidly typed out a quick text. It read:

_They're both dangerous spies! We're stuck in the cabinet. Get OUT!_

The girl smiled unsurely at the two men. The purple man had put away his lighty pen, apparently seeing no danger, instead electing to stare at the girl as if she was some rare specimen, eyes wide and observant.

Dr. Tyler chose to speak first. "Ah, Miss Oswald, what are you doing here?"

She smiled at him with fake confidence, and opened her mouth to speak. She hadn't expected him to be there, and needed an excuse as to why she had shown up in his room after school hours. A chime went off in her pocket. She smiled again, this time apologetically, and quickly flipped her phone open to read the message quickly. Her eyes widened marginally, but she did a decent job keeping her surprise hidden. What really surprised the pair hidden in the cabinet, however, was what she did next.

Instead of giving a quick apology or excuse and leaving when she had the chance, Clara spoke, her voice clear.

"I actually have a question about my homework, if you could help me, sir."


End file.
